placement testing

This morning I spent about 2 hours taking a test and being interviewed. I knew that I would do rather poor on both, as I have very low Japanese language ability and the tests are to measure the level of your language ability.

Last night I wondered at the prospects of taking a test that I knew I would fail. I wondered if it would at all be possible to motivate myself into doing my best on both the test and the interview.

I seemed to manage just fine. I guess there�s some sort of competitive spark in me that just won�t die. But during the test, upon reaching the point when the difficulty was too great, I found myself wondering if I should continue to attempt correct answers or if I should just stop.

Guessing may have helped me to accidentally pick up a few more points and bump me into the highest bracket I could have possibly attained, but at the same time, wouldn�t it have made it evident to the people grading the test (the teachers) that I truly did not know the information?

I ended up doing what my students do. I recognized where my learned-knowledge truly failed and stopped answering there.

Tomorrow I will learn what level I tested into. . .maybe you will too.

japanese language school

written: 7/21

After finally getting around to packing my bags at about 9:30 this morning [procrastination strikes again!], I set off for Okazaki at 11:30. Okazaki is about 1.5 hours southeast of me on the major train line that runs through town.

Why am I leaving fair Miyashiro for ugly Okazaki?

I have enrolled in a month-long intensive Japanese course.

The idea is that I give this �institute� $1000, and for 4 weeks they will provide me with 23 classes per week on all aspects of the Japanese language [for example: reading, kanji, oral communication, pronunciation, writing, and vocabulary], with an emphasis on speaking. Afterwards, I will be much better equipped to 1. navigate the Seas of Communication at my workplace, 2. improve my social life, and ultimately 3. improve my quality of life.

It wasn�t easy to get to this school, and I�m not talking about physical hardships. I had to kowtow to exactly the right people and in exactly the right sequence in order to get the go-ahead. Despite having done everything right, I still had to spend a fair portion of yesterday �arguing� my case.

Basically, the resistance only came from one woman, La Resistance.

La Resistance likes to speak to me in Japanese whenever she can. She does it when we are meeting about my duties of employment, organizing lessons, and even in English class. Usually I do not see it as a sort of insult or lack of concern, I believe she does it in an effort to egg me into speaking Japanese. It�s as though she�s trying to make me reveal that surprise! I�ve been comprehending all along. This deaf and dumb act was simply that, an act.

Unfortunately, La Resistance does not understand that as witty as her remarks may be, I cannot appreciate them because I truly do not understand them. She also does not see this intensive course as a means for me to understand her in the future. Having never lived/stayed abroad, she does not know the discomfort or fear of interacting with a culture that far more often than not, does not speak your language. La Resistance only sees my interest in the language course as a ploy to escape from work. [Not that there is any work to be had at the moment; the students are all on summer break and will remain so until two weeks after I return from the course.] This is a terrible shame for me. As far as I know, I have nearly always been seen as a hard worker. I wonder what the preceding ALTs were like that led La Resistance to assume the same behavior of me. I also wonder if I have ever misjudged anyone as greatly or for as long.